


patak

by jovenlovebot (salamangkera)



Category: Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral (2018), Heneral Luna (2015), Heneral Luna (2015) RPF
Genre: Animal Death, Blood, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:07:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25507963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salamangkera/pseuds/jovenlovebot
Summary: special thanks to derry senpai for beta-ing (? does this count as beta huhu) ilysm mwa





	patak

**I. Pag-asa**

Josefa likes the rain.

Or at least, she used to.

Rain reminded her of the time she used to play outside, when her parents didn't worry as much as they did.

She'd hide, and her parents would look for her, and she would surprise them from her hiding place. She was quite good at hiding. Her itay would often remark that she was part-cat, with how stealthily she could sneak up on them.

They would spend many days like this, but what she remembered was that one rainy afternoon wherein she insisted they play, and her parents refused.

Normally, she would listen to her parents and she'd let it go. But she had been an exceptionally good daughter that day. She got a high score at school. She cleaned her room. She even helped cook for dinner! But her parents wouldn't let her play, even though she knows she deserves it. So she did what she does best: hide.

She doesn't remember how long she hid, but she remembered the tears on her father's face when they finally found her. Her bad mood dissipated immediately upon noticing how hard they hugged her and how long they held on.

She learned three important things that day. One, her actions had consequences. She didn't know it then, but her parents reached the next town just looking for her. A lot of people even helped, spending their afternoon asking around instead of working and earning for their families. Two, not everything she wants, she gets. Sometimes, what she wants isn't the best for everyone. Because of this, she learned to think of something other than herself. Three, her parents love her very much, and would do anything for her. And so, she promised to herself that she'd take care of them. Nothing would happen to them. Not on her watch.

Rain reminded her of when she was walking home from school and quite literally bumped into Eduardo who, she didn't know it at the time, would become her best friend.

It was a funny story, actually. Josefa was worrying because she got caught in the rain again, and her mother is going to be so mad when she tracks mud across her floor. Her thoughts were so scattered that she didn't notice someone ran into her until she felt the cold floodwaters drench her shorts, and _magagalit nang mas lalo si 'nay, anong gagawin ko nito, sino ba kasi itong tumulak sa akin?_ She heard the boy's sniffles before she saw his tears, and her shout died in her throat when she saw his face.

She may have been a child, but she knows terror. It was there at home, when her parents speak to each other in hushed voices. It was there at school, when their teachers rebuke them when they make an offhand remark about the Spanish. It was there in the town square, when people barely acknowledge each other when before they stop and converse for minutes, afraid to trust anyone. It was in the boy's eyes. Without a word, she took his arm and led him to her house, her mother's concerns be damned.

Rain reminded her of when she found Aro.

He was a scrawny little thing when she heard his whimper from behind one of the trees in school. He was shivering, and his eyes, _oh his eyes_ , they were terrified. Both she and the dog knew that he won't make it through the day. He only had patches of fur left, and what fur he had was dark with mud. His tummy was bloated, but his ribs were visible through his skin. To add to that, his paw was hurt, as though he fought with another dog, and lost.

It took her at least twenty minutes to coax him out, but the piece of bread she had with her sped things up considerably. She arranged him in her arms, taking care not to jostle his front paw. She prepared for what she would say to her mother on the walk home, but was surprised when her ‘nay took one look at the dog and hurried to the kitchen to help tend to him. Her parents agreed to her keeping the dog, but insisted she take care of him. _Aroen mo tan. Mahalin mo siya._ And that's where he got his name.

Before, rain was hope. It meant peace and love.

**II. Luha**

But now, rain meant something else.

It meant the whimpers of her love, her precious Aro, as the kura had him whipped in front of her. It meant cradling him in her lap with his eyes staring into her, as if telling her that _it's okay, I’m okay_ , and why is it that he's the one consoling her when it was his blood that mingled with the water pooling in the streets, and _oh God, I'm so sorry, I love you so much_ , and all she can do is pet him and brush his fur in comforting strokes as he died.

It meant standing in the rain, saying goodbye to her best friend, promising each other to keep in touch even though they know they can't keep this promise. It meant her finally feeling the repercussions of war, how it got personal, that it took someone so close to her so soon. It meant staring outside the window, wondering if she should write to Dadong, but not knowing where the troops are. It meant knowing no news is good news, but still feeling terrified with every passing hour. It meant waking up every morning filled with dread, wondering whether today would be the day she hears that her best friend has died.

It meant watching her father press a kiss to her mother’s forehead. It meant him pulling her into a tight hug, and reminding her that he loves her, so so much. It meant being pulled away by her mother when she wouldn't leave, her father’s eyes full of pain and fear but also hope as they grew farther away from him. It meant hearing several gunshots and just knowing that her father, her protector, the man who taught her everything he knows, is gone.

It meant rounding a corner and seeing her mother fall and clutch at her side, and being dragged down with her because they were holding onto each other so tight. It meant her mother painstakingly remove her necklace, her favorite one, the only piece of jewelry she wears aside from her ring, and closing Josefa's fist over it as she begs her daughter to _please leave me alone, please you have to go, don't stay, don't you dare stay, you have to live for your father and I, remember that I love you so much, we love you so so much_. It meant her heart breaking as she turned away and ran and left her mother, the woman that brought her into this world, to die.

It meant hearing pounding footsteps and being torn between hiding because it's what her parents would've wanted or taking her gun out from the folds of her saya and chasing after those monsters who killed her parents. It meant knowing having to live in a world without her parents.

The rain reminded her of tears. And she has had enough of it.

**Author's Note:**

> special thanks to derry senpai for beta-ing (? does this count as beta huhu) ilysm mwa


End file.
